Tag Archives: Apple iPhone 4S

The iPhone 5 release is only weeks away, and Apple is already planning for turnover. If you’re willing to hand over your old iPhone 4S when it releases the new 5, Apple will give you a $345 Apple gift card.

Through its Reuse and Recycling program, Apple plans to offer the gift cards in exchange the older model. Whether or not you are eligible for the trade depends on the condition of your 4S.

The first step in determining whether you’ve got a phone that Apple wants is to get an evaluation from Apple’s online wizard. The wizard lets you select the model, color and condition of your iPhone 4S then it will crank out an estimated value of the device. Obviously, scratches, water damage, or other flaws will diminish the value of your phone.

Their Reuse and Recycling program applies to other Apple devices, including iPads, Macs and even PC computers. The program has you send in your device to Apple for assessment. They’ll determine the exchange value and get back to you. If they say it’s not eligible for reimbursement, you can still turn your device over to Apple for recycling.

Gift cards can be used at any Apple retail or online store. Although you still have to shell out the money for the iPhone 5, this is a decent way to offset the cost of all the extras you will absolutely have to have for your new device.

Just for comparison, vendors on online shopping sites like eBay have iPhone 4S inventory. Some listings show the device going upwards of $500.

In the past few months a United States Civil Rights Advocacy Group has launched a free down-loadable application for your Android Smartphone, your Apple iPhone 4S or any other Smartphone you may own to own that allows you to secretly record police activity discreetly. The Civil Rights Advocacy Group is claiming that it will allow United States Citizens to “help boost police force accountability.” The New Jersey Branch of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) states that "Police Tape," that is now available to the public, "allows people to securely and discreetly record and store interactions with police."

The ACLU is also claiming that the “"an essential tool for police accountability.”

"Too often, incidents of serious misconduct go unreported because citizens don't feel that they will be believed,” said the office's executive director Deborah Jacobs.

The Smartphone application also allows users to send the file to the ACLU for safe-keeping and analysis and even contains legal advice on the rights of citizens confronted, detained or arrested by police officers. Unlike most traditional Smartphone recording applications, the Police Tape application will disappear from your Smartphone screen minimizing the risk that the police officers will even know or have known they've been recorded.

A 46 year old Jackson, Mississippi woman got stuck in a sewer on June 21, 2012 while attempting to get a smartphone back that she had accidentally dropped into the sewer. The woman fell in the sewer at the corner of Watson and Piney Woods Streets, just off of Martin Luther King Drive. Lori McElroy of 1312 Piney Woods Street was talking on a cell phone, when she accidentally dropped her iPhone 4S into a sewer. She was accidentally stuck in the sewer drainage system as she attempted to get the cell phone she dropped down the drainage system.

The fire department was called and had to use the Jaws of Life to get her out. The woman was rather embarrassed but thankfully unhurt and unharmed. "I was on the phone talking with somebody and then I dropped the Apple iPhone 4S in the sewer" said McElroy."There wasn't any water in it, so I figured I could go down there and get it. Then I got stuck and couldn't get out."

She continues on by saying, “"And then they had to call the fire department and the ambulance. I feel wonderful that I am out, but it was a stupid mistake. It's better to just go buy another phone instead of having to go through that." She said that a "phone isn't worth it" and if this happens to you, "just go buy a new one."

Nearly 56% of Smartphone users such as Samsung Galaxy S3, HTC One X, etc in the United States have spent money on mobile applications on at least one occasion, more than 70% of users spend little to nothing on Android or Apple applications however, while the highest 3% of all spenders account for nearly 20% of the total amount spent. In the last two years the competition between Smartphones Applications especially Android and their Apple counterparts has been an immense increase in innovation, ingenuity and creativity. In 2011 with Android operating system reaching a dominant position in the world’s Smartphone market, developers have taken a sudden interest in developing applications that can more than rival their Apple counterparts. Some of the best Smartphone Mobile Applications have been developed by Android and Apple and include applications such as Google Music which lets a user upload 20,000 songs from a PC or Mac to the cloud; the Android application instantly syncs those tunes and playlists, so there’s no longer any worry about plugging a mobile device into the desktop to download their music. SPEAKTOIT ASSISTANT is the next best thing for Android Smartphone users next to Siri, the personal assistant for the Apple iPhone 4. However, while it doesn't have the same capabilities are Siri it does include , it opens a Google search with a few key words from your request, which is often faster than typing. Maybe it should have closer comparison to Dragon Naturally Speaking Software.

According to Nielsen’s latest survey of mobile applications, 36 % of American consumers have a a Smartphone whether an Android or Apple Smartphone. Apple iOS (iPhone) and Google Android OS mobile phones represent the majority of the Smartphones market in the U.S. and 74 percent of mobile users who download applications. Apple iOS and Android OS Smartphones have more applications on their mobile phones than those with other kinds of Smartphones, with an average of 48 applications on iPhones and 35 applications on Android phones. More than 68% of of applications download with iPhone 4S and 60 percent of those with Android phones reported using their mobile applications multiple times throughout the day.

However, its important to note that Smartphones applications that are provided for free usage for both the Apple iOS and Android -want something in return, and the tradeoff often comes at the expense of users' privacy. It's important to be careful especially when it comes to dealing with free applications for either Apple Smartphone or Android Smartphones.

"The presence of aggressive ad networks in mobile applications is one of the most prevalent mobile privacy issues today," said Lookout CTO Kevin Mahaffey in a recent interview. Earlier this year, for example, iOS apps Path and Hipster were found to be leaking contact data. While technically that either application development firm was grabbing people's contact information for nefarious purposes, the wholesale transmission of people's address books in unencrypted format certainly did nothing to protect the privacy of users' data. It's just another important reminder on how especially careful Apple and Android Smartphone users such as Samsung Infuse, BlackBerry Touch 9900, etc should always be.

Smartphone users who find themselves in the vicinity of dangerous weather will get a text message from the National Weather Service. The NWS’s new Wireless Emergency Alerts system is designed to get weather warnings to those not plugged into television or radio. Warnings will be delivered for impending rough weather due to tornadoes, hurricanes, typhoons, tsunamis, flash floods, extreme winds, blizzards, and ice and dust storms.

According to Amy Storey, spokeswoman for CTIA-The Wireless Association (the trade group that helped set up the system), “These alerts will make sure people are aware of any impending danger and provide them with the information needed so they can be safe until the threat is over.”

Verizon, Sprint and T-Mobile will offer the service nationwide. To start, AT&T will only offer it in New York City, Washington, D.C. and Portland, Oregon but plans to add additional markets soon. Apple will support the service this fall. It’s not yet certain if older iPhones will get the text warnings.

Google regularly updates its transparency report that details thousands of requests from governments around the world to censor search results, drop YouTube videos or review user data. A sample snapshot of this report is shown below.

Google doesn’t just bend to government’s will either. While Google did agree to cooperate on blogs promoting hate speech and violence, it refused to censor a video where a Canadian citizen creatively destroyed his passport.

Google logs and details every request. Their numbers indicate that the only comply with about half of the requests, indicating Google’s fundamental respect for the right to free speech in a great majority of cases.

Most filings come from the US, UK and India. The list makes for interesting reading.

Apple who brought the world the successful products like iPhone 4S and iPad 3, will shut down its failed social network and music sharing service Ping later this year. Ping’s demise will be timed with Apple’s debut of its next major iTunes release in the fall. According to All Things D, Apple will pull the plug on Ping and focus its social networking efforts on Twitter and Facebook integration.

Apple designed Ping, in part, to keep iTunes users browsing in the iTunes store and encouraging them to regularly purchase more music. Apple launched Ping in September 2010, but Apple fans never got caught up in their usual Apple product frenzy. Apple tried a couple of times to remind users that Ping was the place for social music sharing, but it never caught on.

A Chinese website has published pictures that they claim reflect a working model of the sixth-generation Apple iPhone. The TGBUS website posted a series of “iPhone 5” photos that they believe are authentic.

The device in the pictures matches the hardware described in previous leaks. These photos look like they’re as close to the real thing as anything else that we’ve seen so far.

As far as their source, the Italian phone blog iPhoneItalia has discovered that these pictures are 3D renderings created and posted by a Flickr user.

Everything about these photos matches previous iPhone 5 rumors. The case is thinner than that of the iPhone 4S and iPhone 4. The device is also noticeably taller than the other versions - to this end, all new iPhone accessories for the iPhone 5 would have to be designed to fit a rumored 4.08 inch display. Don’t get too excited yet... as none of the dimensions can be verified from the photos.

The cases for both the iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S are longer than the one shown in these pics - by a few millimeters in each direction beyond the wrap-around antenna. These pictures show a case that barely extends beyond the width of the antenna. There’s a smaller dock connector, a relocated audio jack, new speaker grills, a larger camera lens and an LED flash. The backside of the case shows a two-tone rear cover that appears to be aluminum and glass. The antenna matches this in color.

While Apple has been focused on undertaking aggressive patent related litigation against Samsung.... the latter has turned the tables, using the moment of this highly charged war into its advantage. As a result, Samsung Galaxy SII cell phone and their Galaxy tablet has gained strong market position as the alternative to Apple's iOS lineup.

Recently, Samsung launched a new advertising campaign targeting Apple iPhone 4S... portraying iPhone users as mindless sheep lining up in droves for hours at end to get the new iPhone 4S which looked liked and had little improvement on their older iPhone 3G. On the flip side it portrays the true sophisticated hipsters opting for the more unlocked cell phone - the feature-laden Samsung Galaxy SII sporting a large visual display and 4G speeds. View Samsung's advertisement in the following Vidoe.

Always poised to take advantage of public relations and marketing opportunities, Samsung is directly speaking to Apple's litigious strategy in an effort to increase market positioning.

To this end, Samsung ran a full page advertisement 'The Tablet Apple Tried to Stop" in the Sunday's edition of The Sun-Herald one of Australia's most read papers... alluding to the Samsung Galaxy 10 Tablet

Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 10.1 features a 10.1-inch display, a dual-core processor and Google’s Android Honeycomb operating system. According to Apple, the slate also features a design that “slavishly” copies its popular iPad tablet and technology that infringes on multiple Apple-owned patents. Leaving your valuable mobile devices unprotected is risky! Protect your devices from scratches and blemishes with our stylish top brand bags, sleeves and cases accessories.

Defending its products against Apple’s numerous lawsuits continues to cost Samsung a tremendous amount of money, Samsung has placed $200M aside to continue its litigation strategy. Nonetheless, Samsung's strategy seems to be working in their favor as they have has just edged past the iPhone in consumer perception (adults 18+), likely powered by their new set of ads bashing the Apple fanboys who camp out for hours to buy the new iPhone.” The latest trend setting fashionable cases and skin accessories express your unique style. Make your mobile devices stand out. Customize your look - how cool can you be?

Market research firm YouGov reports on brand perception that:

The downward and upward perception movement of the iPhone and Samsung respectively is driven mostly by adults 50+. Samsung and iPhone were measured with YouGov BrandIndex’s Buzz score, which is determined from asking respondents: "If you've heard anything about the brand in the last two weeks, through advertising, news or word of mouth, was it positive or negative?"
YouGov BrandIndex measurement scores range from 100 to -100 and are compiled by subtracting negative feedback from positive. A zero score means equal positive and negative feedback. The iPhone’s buzz score began sinking around November 28, with a buzz score of 33 – the current score is 25. Samsung, whose buzz score was 19 compared to the iPhone’s 29 on October 3rd, is now at 26.

Samsung appears ready to take Apple on both in the courtroom and in the eyes of consumers, and the company is making progress on both fronts. Enhance your mobility... turn your device into a power tool. Discover select memory and electronic accessories specifically designed to make your devices functionally efficient and performance rich.

As if airline travel today is not worrisome enough in light of potential terrorism... we now have the additional preoccupation of whether Apple iPhone users will have their cell phone spontaneously combust in flames.

In fact, this did happen on Regional Express flight ZL319 which operating from Lismore to Sydney Australia. After the plane landed, flight attendants noticed that a passenger's iPhone 4 was glowing red and discharging a significant amount of dense smoke. Cell phone case accessories are designed to protect your smart phone devices against scratches and unslightly blemishes caused by life's hustle and bustle.

Quick thinking flight attendants were able to quickly extinguish the glowing red iPhone 4 and proceeded to convince the passengers that this was not a terrorist attack. All passengers and flight attendants were unharmed... the only casualty seems to have been the iPhone 4 owner's ego. Discover the right accessories that enhance functionality and optimize applications to turn your cell phone into a power device that is better suited to your unique lifestyle needs.

The matter has been reported to the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) as well as the Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) for investigation and directions.

This is an image of the actual self combustible iPhone

The likely culprit is the LED battery which Apple has only tested for one mile sky limits. Upon consideration it is far better a faulty LED batteries (which has been a known issue in some laptops resulting in recalls over the years) than an act of terrorist intent. With that in mind, mobile users may want to investigate their options. Unlocked phones make the choices varied and empower the consumer take these kinds of product shortcomings into consideration.